United States Seventh Circuit

In a suit under ERISA alleging that a pension plan's fiduciaries failed to anticipate a decline in the value of the plan's stock holdings, judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) outgoing directors' decision to sell most of their stock in the company was not material information; 2) an ERISA fiduciary does not have a duty to disclose, directly to a plan's participants, non-material information that may affect the participants for reasons unrelated to the value of the investment; and 3) a fiduciary is not responsible for the decline in an investment's value when an informed and independent investment adviser has been furnished without charge to all beneficiaries, who exercise full control over which investments their accounts will hold.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/30/2007
• Decided 01/02/2008
• Published 01/02/2008

Judges

• EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge., Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and FLAUM and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Steve W. Berman, Andrew Volk (argued), Hagens BermanSobol Shapiro, Seattle, WA, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• R. Hackney Wiegmann (argued), Dane H. Butswinkas, Williams & Connolly, Washington, DC, Paul A. Wolfa, Baker & Daniels, Indianapolis, IN, for Defendants-Appellees.